slow dancing in a burning room
by melancholy melodies
Summary: "Why are you always so awful to me, Kitty? What did I ever do to you?" Kitty doesn't hate Marley, not really. Quite the opposite, in fact. / karley


**a/n:** Haha, I feel like I'm the only one that ships these two; Marley is so sweet and itty is such a bitch but I don't know — I'm really drawn to them (and Brochel) and I really hope that Kitty has some kind of backstory as to why she's so horrible. Besides, isn't that what people said about Quinn in s1? (But Kitty will never replace Quinn. Ever) Anyway, enjoy!

**disclaimer:** I don't own the title, the song at the beginning or glee — otherwise Tina would have become the new Rachel (esp. since Blaine was already the new Rachel, judging by the amount of solos he got last year.)

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**slow dancing in a burning room  
**marley/kitty

_she woke up screaming in the middle of the night / terrified of her own insides. —_frank turner

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"Why are you always so awful to me, Kitty? What did I ever do to you?"

She doesn't respond, only throwing Marley a dirty look as the brunette washed her hair in the sink.

She knew the answer to Marley's question, but maybe she was too scared to face it.

(Or maybe she was too scared to face herself.)

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"You could have been popular, you know."

Marley turned around, fearing a new wave of ice cold humiliation (and corn syrup) — Kitty, of course, had made her Public Enemy number one and she'd begun taking to bringing two — or sometimes more — sets of clothes to school. Marley breathed in a deep sigh, trying to keep her face neutral; it wouldn't do good for Kitty to see her crying, but she's really been hoping that today would be the first day in a week that she hadn't been slushied, and now this —

She furtively glanced around her; the hallways were empty, as it was nearing five o'clock. She's stayed after because her mother had needed to finish a recipe (or ten) for tomorrow's lunch and, to be quite honest, she wanted to tune her musical talents — the New Directions had a lot of talented singers and she wasn't quite sure that she was up to par with them yet, although they disagreed many times.

When she unwillingly glanced back to the source, she saw that Kitty was still staring at her. The first thing she noticed, to her obvious relief, was that Kitty wasn't holding a cup of frozen humiliation. The second thing she noticed was that he wasn't in her Cheerio's uniform, instead she was wearing a classy skirt and tank top, paired off with an actual cardigan.

"What?" Marley finally spoke, unwillingly moving her eyes up to Kitty's face. Surprisingly, there was no hate there.

"I said," Kitty began with an air of impatience, "If you would have just kept your mouth shut for once, Rose, you and that stupid glee club of yours could have still been at the top of the food chain."

Marley let out a breathy laugh which concealed her anger, "Are you serious, Kitty? You wanted me to lie about my own mother? The woman that gave birth to me and took care of me?"

Kitty had the decency to look somewhat abashed, but soon the look was gone and replaced wither trademark HBIC glare, "Shut up! I didn't say to lie, just avoid the fact that that … woman was your mother and maybe — "

Marley fully turned around now, angry with Kitty and angry with herself for standing here for so long and listening to this — this _bitch's_ 'wise words of wisdom'. "Maybe what?" she glared at the blonde girl, who obviously hadn't expected the conversation to go as it did, "We could have been BFFs? Meanwhile you ridiculed my mother? No thanks. I'd take being unpopular any day." This wasn't exactly true, she had wanted to be popular but just not at that price.

"Fine, then!" Kitty said in exasperation, "What do you want me to do? Excuse me for trying to let the less fortunate!"

Marley willed herself to stay calm _— breathe in, breathe out, you should be leaving at any moment now_ — "Just — just go away, Kitty." She sighed in resignation; the only positive part of this conversation would be that this blouse would go home unsoiled.

After a minute, she looked up to see Kitty still staring at her, an undecipherable look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, then, okay? I'm sorry but if you want to get on top — if you want to _stay_ on top, you have to have your priorities. And the — your mom is not one of them. It's how it is."

"Then I don't want to be popular."

"Right." Kitty let out a sarcastic laugh.

Marley inwardly wondered what Kitty was still doing here; after all, anyone — although the chances of someone being at the school hours past closing — could walk in on them, and then where would her precious reputation go?

"Whatever," she went back to her locker, hoping that Kitty would just leave her alone — after all, HBIC Kitty was horrible but Kitty that just came up to her and decided to talk was even more strange. She attempted to stuff all of her textbooks, binders, and sheet music in her bag, only to have them all fall out, scattering at the foot of her locker.

"Here," Kitty said, reaching down to grab some of the books that had fallen as Marley stood, shocked. "I'm not actually a bitch, you know," she muttered, her voice so soft that Marley almost didn't hear her.

"Uh — right," Marley nodded.

Kitty picked up the last sheet of paper — a copy of sheet music — and glanced at it. "For Glee club, right? You're really good at it — singing, I mean."

Marley raised an eyebrow, unsure of how Kitty knew about her singing ability.

"I saw you in the auditorium," Kitty said, rolling her eyes, "I'm not a stalker or anything."

But why was Kitty watching her?

"Thanks," Marley said; for some reason, she found herself blushing under the blonde's intense gaze. "For helping me pick up my books."

"Whatever," Kitty said with a scoff, checking her iPhone. They stood in awkward silence for a minute, until Kitty said, "You're brave, you know. That's hard to find." And just like that, Kitty began walking away from Marley, even though her heart was telling her to stay — because if she did stay. She knew that she'd say something that she'd regret.

"Wait!" Marley began running after her, grabbing the back of her cardigan to stop her. It was a testament to how far they'd come (except for the fact that they really hadn't come that far at all) that she didn't yell at Marley. "Why?"

She didn't need to elaborate. "Because … " Kitty said, not looking Marley in the eye, "because — "

Without warning, Kitty leaned over and kissed Marley, taking both girls over by surprise, and yet Marley didn't feel like moving. Her lips tingled when she finally pulled away. "Oh my God."

Face white and red simultaneously, Kitty turned and bolted. "Sorry." She had no idea why she did that — except that it felt right, and that she had to have an outlet for the hurricane of emotions that Marley had her feel.

"Thanks, Kitty," Marley whispered, feeling out of breath; why did Kitty suddenly have this effect on her?

"Oh. And, Rose? This doesn't change a thing," Kitty said in her usual tone, ignoring how this strange girl — one she would never look at twice — managed to get under her skin and yet she was, inexplicably, almost interested by her. "If you even think about mentioning it to anyone, I will make your life hell."

It was only half-hearted, though, because her blood was still pumping.

"Of course not," Marley murmured, still wonderstruck.

Her skirt was swishing around her lower thighs when she turned around at the door to see Marley staring after her. She gave her an almost smile and walked through the doors into the late afternoon sunlight. She wished that she could be as brave as Marley, standing up for what she believed in, not what people told her to believe in.

Marley stared at Kitty until she opened the door, body being drowned out in the bright light — she wasn't stupid; she knew that things would go back to being the same more or less tomorrow, and let a small smile played at the corner of her lips. She knew that she wouldn't tell her momma about this; some things were meant to be kept as secrets, and this, most definitely, was one of them.

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She wanted to push Marley — to push Marley so hard that maybe she'd finally break into pieces and be as broken as Kitty was.

Maybe if she pushed Marley hard enough, no one would understand the real reason why she hated Marley so much — the fact that she didn't hate her at all.

(But it almost breaks her heart when she sees Marley and Puckerman talking and laughing together in the hallway.)

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**fin.**

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